1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection structure for a vehicle, for use in eco-friendly cars, such as hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and the like, and in particular, for being capable of use for a portion to connect a power harness, which is used for large power transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
In hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and the like which have remarkably developed in recent years, a power harness, which is used for large power transmission for connection between devices, e.g. between a motor and an inverter or between the inverter and a battery, has at its one end a connector, which consists of two separate portions: a male connector portion with a male terminal and a first terminal housing accommodating that male terminal, and a female connector portion with a female terminal connected with the male terminal and a second terminal housing accommodating that female terminal. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-070754 (JP-A 2009-070754) discloses a connector having the aforementioned structure.
In recent years, such eco-friendly cars have been designed to reduce the weights of all parts thereof, to enhance the energy saving performance of the cars. As one effective means to reduce the weights of parts of the cars, it has been proposed to reduce the sizes of the parts.
For example, a technique as described below, which is disclosed by JP Patent No. 4037199, has been known in the art.
JP Patent No. 4037199 discloses an electrical connection structure for a vehicle, which is for connecting multiphase connecting terminals of a conductive member drawn out from a motor for driving the vehicle, and multiphase connecting terminals of a power line cable drawn out from an inverter for driving the motor, in which each phase connecting terminal of the conductive member and each corresponding phase connecting terminal of the power line cable are overlapped, and isolating plates are disposed on opposite surfaces to overlapped surfaces of the connecting terminals, respectively, and these overlapped connecting terminals and isolating plates are collectively fastened in an overlapping direction with a single bolt provided in a position to penetrate these overlapped connecting terminals and isolating plates.
That is, in the technique used in the electrical connector disclosed by JP Patent No. 4037199, the single bolt is tightened in the overlapping direction, to collectively hold the multiplicity of contacts between the connecting terminals, which are the overlapped surfaces of the connecting terminals, and thereby fix the connecting terminals at the contacts therebetween, for electrical connections between the connecting terminals, respectively. This configuration disclosed by JP Patent No. 4037199 is effective in easily ensuring size reduction, compared to a technique disclosed by JP-A-2009-070754.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-203021 (JP-A 2001-233021) discloses one example of prior arts.
Herein, a power harness used for vehicles is used on-vehicle which is a vibrational environment. According to this background, the connecting terminals tend to be moved relatively due to fretting (micro sliding), so that prevention of fretting corrosion at contacts is one of technical problems.
However, an effective means for preventing the fretting corrosion at the contacts has not been achieved in the structure shown by Japanese Patent No. 4037199.